The key facts
- Three lanes on Emirates Road (E611) opposite Al Maktoum Airport are closed from 9:00 to 4:00 daily from October 26 to 31
- The Al Maktoum International Airport tunnel will be fully closed during this period
- In September, Dubai opened the Dubai Mobility Labs testing center; the goal is 25% autonomous trips by 2030
Lane closures on the E611 highway
Dubai is partially closing a section of one of the emirate's main highways during peak hours to conduct driverless taxi tests. According to the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), from Monday, October 26 to Saturday, October 31, traffic will be restricted on three lanes of Emirates Road, also known as E611, opposite Al Maktoum International Airport. The restrictions apply daily from 9:00 to 4:00. The Al Maktoum International Airport tunnel will be fully closed during this period. Authorities urged drivers to plan their routes in advance and follow road signs.
Context: the autonomous transport strategy
The closures reflect Dubai's course of integrating autonomous technologies into road infrastructure. In September, the emirate opened the Dubai Mobility Labs testing center in Dubai Silicon Oasis, established by the RTA together with the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority. The center includes test tracks and simulates 248 test scenarios — from complex road situations to weather conditions; technologies from WeRide, Pony.ai and Tesla have already been tested there. The center is part of a plan under which 25% of all trips in the emirate should become autonomous by 2030. Earlier, in September 2025, Dubai announced the creation of a 15-square-kilometer testing zone for driverless taxis and service vehicles in Festival City and Dubai Creek Harbour.
Driverless taxis are already on the roads
Commercial operation of driverless taxis in Dubai began in February: the network was launched by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, and he himself took a ride in the Chinese Baidu Apollo Go driverless vehicle to the World Governments Summit. Last month, Uber Technologies began serving the Baidu Apollo Go service on its Dubai network, with plans to deploy thousands of autonomous vehicles; the Baidu sixth-generation RT6 robotaxi service is initially available in the Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim areas, with expansion plans. Editorial note: closing lanes on an active highway shows that Dubai is moving from proving-ground testing to checking driverless vehicles in real traffic near key infrastructure — Al Maktoum Airport — which directly affects drivers who will have to rework their routes for a week.
